Vitamin Code Story
Raw 100% Active
The world of supplements and vitamins can often be
confusing for the everyday American looking to be healthy. One aspect
that consumers often overlook is how a product is manufactured, and more
importantly, what happens to the “raw material” during that
manufacturing process.
Although many marketers employ a whole host of “novel”
forms for vitamins and minerals, such as liquid drinks, gummy chews,
chocolate chews, or effervescent drink wafers – the primary options are
tablets or capsules.
Tablets are the most popular and widely available
option to the consumer. As we have discussed in this book, so many
people are looking for the convenient, once a day formula for their
multi and the tablet is ideal for this market. The primary advantage of
a tablet is that you are able to compress a relatively large amount of
“raw material” into a compact pill that is “easy to swallow”. However,
this comes with a cost.
In order to make a tablet, a surprising large amount
of steps need to be followed in order to ensure the tablet takes the
shape, and maintains the shape all the way from the factory to your
cupboard. Ingredients are mixed, blended and sometimes ground or
pulverized in order to make sure the particle size of the raw material
is consistent. Depending on the raw material that is being tableted,
binding agents are added to ensure the material holds together
throughout the tableting process.
Just a few decades ago, small start up companies would
manufacture their products “in their own garage”; however today the
industry utilizes state of the art facilities and cutting edge
technology and manufacturing best practices in order to realize
efficiencies and speedier delivery to market. What this means is that
practically all the vitamins or supplements you see in the store go
through multiple stages and machinery in the manufacturing process.
When it comes time to compress that raw material into
a tablet, a special machine that generates an intense amount of pressure
“punches” the material through a mold or die. Unfortunately, along with
the high pressure required to punch the tablet comes high heat as well
which can alter or affect the integrity of the raw material. And as
manufacturers are always looking to optimize production, they are
finding ways to produce more tablets per minute. The fastest tablet
machines typically have the highest heat and pressure.
One final step is required to ensure the material
holds together through the packaging stage and the transport to market –
spray coating. This is yet another step of processing the material will
need to endure and this often times comes with ingredients or added
compounds that are inactive (fillers) that comprise the coating, as well
as high temperatures at the application of the coating and the drying
time.
When evaluating the products available on the shelf,
look for the term “Other ingredients”. There you will find binders,
fillers, excipients, flow agents and other additives such as:
- Maltodextrin
- Corn starch
- Magnesium stearate
- Stearic Acid
- Silica
- Cellulose gum
- Guar gum
- Soy Lecithin
- Milled soy
Some of these additives do have some nutritive value,
but relatively low in comparison to the vitamins, minerals or other key
nutrients you are looking to derive from the product. And on the low end
8-15% of the weight of the product can be these “Other ingredients” and
on the high end 20-25%. And the regulations are not always clear on
exactly how a marketer of the product is to disclose this to the
consumer.
Encapsulation, on the other hand, is simply the
filling and combining of two ends of a capsule with the raw material
ingredients. The primary drawback of this delivery form is that you can
fit less material into the shape size. For instance, one of the largest
capsules available will hold approx 600 mg of material whereas a tablet
that is approximately the same size will hold 1100mg of material.
The advantage of encapsulation, especially when aiming
to deliver a RAW Food-Created Nutrient™, is that there are minimal steps
in the process and you don’t have the need for binders, fillers, high
pressure and heat tableting, or spray coating. So the material maintains
its intrinsic value and pristine quality, all throughout the process to
bring the product to market.
With the Vitamin Code RAW Food-Created Nutrients, you
will find an encapsulated material that has been meticulously controlled
and minimally handled to deliver you the highest quality nutrients
possible. Vitamin Code formulas are uncooked,, untreated, minimally
processed, and contain live enzymes and probiotics – delivering to you
the ultimate in raw, whole food nutrition. They contain no binders and
no fillers. Every ingredient in the product has nutritive value, making
the Vitamin Code multivitamins 100% Active.
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Vitamin Code Introduction
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